Method Community

Wow, this is terrific. We have waited patiently for this capability! I was a bit nervous, my Oulook is my "life" and always afraid to sync other programs with it.

After making a backup (just in case!), I began the sync process and was able to define exactly what I wanted to sync from Method to Outlook.

Now I will more closely watch the time of day assigned to an outgoing phone message. Why is the time of day not in a field by itself? It defaults to the same time of day I am creating the activity, in this case it was 10:00 p.m., not when I would call a prospect. Perhaps allow us to define a default time of day as I often group my calls early in the day and try to get to them all.

I would prefer to be able to add to the subject line: Business (Entity) name, and then to the location the Contact and the Phone Number. Right now you can only assign one or the other not a combination.

For now I only want to sync Phone Call - Outgoing to my Outlook, I had no problem here. The tool did want to send my Outlook appointment to Method, I was not wanting to do this and had to check the "deselect all", perhaps we could have a setting that would recognize this choice to not send appointments to Method.

I also liked the new dialog for creating a new lead and opportunity from an email.

I am excited about this improvement! Thanks for the hard work, you know I have been waiting for this!

Laura Madeira:

Wow, this is terrific. We have waited patiently for this capability! I was a bit nervous, my Oulook is my "life" and always afraid to sync other programs with it.

After making a backup (just in case!), I began the sync process and was able to define exactly what I wanted to sync from Method to Outlook.

Laura - that is great news.  Brought a smile to my face for sure.  I felt the same way with using this tool and I really hammer at it on a daily basis.  It has taken a while to get where it is now but I think it is a superior tool to many of the other Outlook add-ins.  I'm not sure if you've taken advantage of the "Categories" feature yet.  If not, it's awesome!  I had put a posting on the forum last week asking about me doing a webinar to show off some of the cool features but it seems as though I haven't gotten a strong enough response to warrant me doing a webinar.  Might have to hold off and do one for the general Method user base when we release it.  

Laura Madeira:

Now I will more closely watch the time of day assigned to an outgoing phone message. Why is the time of day not in a field by itself? It defaults to the same time of day I am creating the activity, in this case it was 10:00 p.m., not when I would call a prospect. Perhaps allow us to define a default time of day as I often group my calls early in the day and try to get to them all.

The Date/Time object is embedded into one date/time picker so there isn't a separate field to enter in the time for the appointment.  In terms of the time it selects, if you are referring to the time in Method, you could customize the screen to set a default time that you prefer to use instead of the current time.  

Laura Madeira:

I would prefer to be able to add to the subject line: Business (Entity) name, and then to the location the Contact and the Phone Number. Right now you can only assign one or the other not a combination.

This is very tricky!  We had to come up with creative ways of putting data from Method into Outlook.  When you look at an Outlook appointment, it is actually very basic.  The idea here is that a user can set their preference but they may override these preference when using Outlook directly.  When that happens, we no longer sync the information for these field in the appointment and instead refer to what is being referenced in the beginning and ending tags for ".:Method Begins/Ends:."

Laura Madeira:

For now I only want to sync Phone Call - Outgoing to my Outlook, I had no problem here. The tool did want to send my Outlook appointment to Method, I was not wanting to do this and had to check the "deselect all", perhaps we could have a setting that would recognize this choice to not send appointments to Method.

The trick here is to mark appointments as "Private" in Outlook.  These appointments will sync with Method but will show ".:Private Appointment:." in the comments and be assigned the default activity settings you have setup in Method.  Problem solved!

I have another request, or question. Two of us are entering into Method, oportunities and activities are assigned to the appropriate individual.

When we sync with Outlook we would like it to recognize whose activity it is and only sync that activity with the appropriate Outlook Calendar.

Can this currently be done?

Laura this is already being done.  The appointments that appear in Outlook from Method are based on the username that is entered in the plug-in.  

 A little more detail might help. We have a generic email that all leads come in through email. I personally manage that and then assign the lead to the appropriate person. I would like the tool to recognize who the lead is assigned to and when each person integrates with Outlook it would recognize this.

Currently I am assigning a unique type and color, they go on my calendar and then I forward to the assigned individual.

Laura Madeira:

 A little more detail might help. We have a generic email that all leads come in through email. I personally manage that and then assign the lead to the appropriate person. I would like the tool to recognize who the lead is assigned to and when each person integrates with Outlook it would recognize this.

Currently I am assigning a unique type and color, they go on my calendar and then I forward to the assigned individual.

Laura,

Here is what I would do.  

When I new lead comes in for that email address, I would add them into Method as a lead status because they are only a lead at that time.  I would also take the liberty of assigning the proper Sales Rep in QuickBooks for good measure.  Next, I would make sure that I create a new opportunity for that lead and assign it to the appropriate person.  This can all be done from within the plug-in.  I can also go ahead and setup an activity for that person to call the lead.  Now when that person goes ahead and syncs with the plug-in, if the activity is within the date range, they will have the appointment show up in their calendar.  

Problem solved.